Update For The American Craftsman Shop Class

I Really Quit!

Since I made my announcement to quit working as a contractor, I have been working my butt off to finish up the projects that I have obligations to.

I really did quit taking new jobs as a contractor, and I dropped other projects that I had been looking at, but had no legal obligation to.

The other day I finished installing a 17’ banquette for a new restaurant in town. It was the second one I have done for them, and the project had been in the pipeline for a couple of months. I am just glad it is out of the shop, done, and the restaurant owners are very happy.

Right now, I am finishing up a couple of small jobs and hope to get them off the books in the next 2 weeks.

Holding My Feet To The Fire

I know the woodworking community will be expecting content since I made my announcement, but the best thing I can do is focus on getting the contractor projects done and out of the way. This will keep me from splitting my time between acting as a contractor and content producer.

Why make an announcement if I was not ready to launch? I have been wanting to do this pretty seriously for the last 2 years. The infrastructure is completely in place. Cameras, lights, computer, and materials, but no time.

My business, as a contractor, consumes all of my time. My plan to start offering content and product to the woodworking community was not working out at all. Hitting my 50th birthday simply was a point I decided to do something radical and quit my business to start producing content.

Making a public announcement means that the woodworking community knows about it, and they will hold my feet to the fire to make sure I move forward with production.

Behind the Scenes

There is also a lot of work to do behind the scenes. I can’t afford to pay someone to set things up for me, so I am learning how to do it myself. In the end, I need to learn the platform, so it is good I am climbing that hill now.

Besides setting up the school platform, it seems there are so many other accounts and things to set up, such as Mail Chimp to handle email subscribers. I am also working on my regular site to update it as well.

The goal is just to get things up and running, and then I can fine tune and polish it after things get going.

The Technical Info

Because people are starting to ask about what platform I am using here’s the info (and I am not paid or sponsored in any way):

SquareSpace is my website platform. It is an all inclusive platform that I really love using. I get great support from them and it is all online, it is not a Mac or Windows thing. It just works.

I have only scratched the surface for how nice of a website that can be set up with it. I look forward to working on my site more now that it is my home base above anything else.

Check out SquareSpace.com

I am using Teachable as the platform for hosting my classes. I looked at Teachable and Kajabi, but Kajabi is in limited beta release until 2016 but I need to get things moving now. Since I am not using Wordpress, I am not using the plug-ins typical for that platform.

So far, I am just setting up the Teachable platform. They have responded to the questions I had and I would say that I have no complaints at this stage of development.

Check out Teachable.com

Check out Kajabi.com

One thing about setting up anything like this on the internet, they say it just takes a few minutes. But it never fails that hours and hours melt away before you know it. So I have spent a lot of time at the computer lately.

Project Plans In The Works

Besides all of the computer and online work to be done, I have started development of my project plans. I don’t intend to release what those are at the moment, but that will come soon.

Feel free to check out the projects that I have designed and built for clients at my gallery page. I intend to bring this experience and knowledge to the woodworking community so that you may reach your goals in honing your skills and creating great projects.

Stay tuned, things are moving forward. But I need to stay focused and get my contractor projects wrapped up then I can focus on my new clients; the woodworkers;)

Your friend in the shop-

Todd A. Clippinger

Share the Love – Share the Knowledge